Pro's/Con's of Ampedbikes.com kits

[ddk]

-bought from hightekbikes
the only crap connector is the one for the off/on switch

battery

tie strapped.jpg (61.79 KiB) Viewed 547 times

[ohzee]

Hahahahaa...

Danny boi can't even tell the difference between 18 gauge and 16 gauge wires. His warranty lapses if you change out the shit molex connectors for something that will work @ 20 amps. Forget about troubleshooting unless you want to know about wood framing a house.

Other than that, he is a great guy.

This is also my experience. Props for trying to get people into this hobby , but I also agree the skill set supporting ampedbikes is limited
and the mark up is substantial. Especially when you see people reselling "amped bike kits" for a good discount.

[motomech]

My kit actually came from Terry at HTB[not sure if it is in any way different from A.B.]and it did come with a nice water-resistent motor/controller connector and a pretty good wheel build. The spokes were all fitted as "inners", aiding brk. caliper clearance, but the spokes themselves have rusted[and this bike has never seen rain].
From DDK's pic, it would seem that a bulkhead connector on the controller has been added, mine are just siliconed.
Cell_man's wheel builds are reported to be good as well.
One thing about mini-motors, you really don't hear about broken spokes/bent rims.

[HighTekBikes]

Several people have asked if the MXUS geared motor being sold is the same as the one from Ampedbikes. While I don't have definitive proof yet, I believe the Amped version is slightly different. Yes, it is manufactured by MXUS but Danny has a history of improving on a design, spending his own funds. I think it has a different wind and is slightly faster, not sure what else is different. I can relate a conversation I had with the factory which was interesting. I was at the China trade show and saw the MXUS booth with the kits that looked like Ampedbikes. So I decided to test the sales person. First I asked if they manufactured for Amped. She said yes (acting proud). I then said, ok I want to order the same kit that they do. She said, sorry they have a special model I can't help you, and you have to talk to the manager. Also some people still think their DD motor is from 9-C. It's actually also made by MXUS.

[IIIHorseman]

Yeah AB markets itself as: "We don't believe in 300% markup on products" and "All revenue is reinvested in R&D" is basically false. It's the same Chinese kits with little to no improvement in design or modication.

[auto_bike]

I have built 3 bikes from 2 direct drive Amped kits, 2 SLA bikes and one lithium (tube battery) and they've been running for over a year now, one every day.

Pros: The motor, controller, throttle, etc seem pretty solid. Pricing isn't too bad and they shipped both promptly (except for the tube battery, which was a customer service nightmare of misinformation and backorders). The SLA pack is a simple setup and its easy to replace batteries as they die.

Cons: Customer service isn't great. The SLA packs don't last of course but they are just 3 standard batteries you can buy anywhere for much less than what they charge for a full replacement pack. The cloth "pack" might last 6 months before it starts to fall apart. The lithium tube batteries are wonderful when they work but they have a lot of electronic issues and fail pretty often and it's hugely expensive. When my tube battery finally dies I'm just going back to SLA. The warranty is something like 6 months, which was right when my lithium battery went on the fritz.

Personally if you don't have some electrical know-how I wouldn't bother with ebikes at all.

[ddk]

I'll just add that the ampedbike's mini-geared motor mounted in a 24" wheel achieves 21mph with a freshly-charged 36V battery (41.5V) on my semi-recumbent trike build. (sitting about 15" lower than a standard bike)
20mph @39-40V
as per usual, YMMV or in this case, YSMV